Thursday, December 20, 2007

If you are new around here, welcome! This is the sixth in a series that is recapping my exploits from 2007. Check the search box at the top of the header and type in "rearview" to find the previous posts. To the rest of you.....here we go again!Interbike: The word means several things to different people. To some shop rats it is The Holy Grail, to some non-industry types it is cyclings version of Heaven, to a lot of folks in the industry it is an Olympic Marathon, Hell, and a Class Reunion all wrapped in one package. Me? Hey..........I'm just happy to be there! I kind of feel like I am somewhere I don't belong doing things I really shouldn't be doing. (In a good way, not in that "What is done in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas" way!) Anywho...........

Interbike on the media side, the real, big time media side, is a whole different ball game and I get an up close and personal look at it. The thing is, I'm on the outside looking in, since Crooked Cog is non-traditional media. And boy, let me tell you, the traditional media let you know it! Ever sit down for lunch in high school at the table with the popular kids by mistake? Yeah......it was like that! The vibe is really negative towards us. Weird stuff for sure.

The whole trip this year was highlighted by my first Outdoor Demo. Now this is the stuff that I know all you cycling folks would totally geek out on! I know I did. I mean, hey! They give you this little green card and you can pick any bike you want to ride, show them this magic little green card, and you are gone! You can ride $5000.00 roadie dream bikes, full on DH sleds, all the latest mountain bike trick rigs, or recumbents...........if you really want to! It's mad, crazy mad fun. Of all the times I wished I was in better shape in 2007, (and believe me...there were lots of times I wished that!) this was the time I would have killed to be in top notch shape. I rode myself silly those two days, but hey! Wouldn't you?

<==Lost Wages at night. What's in your wallet?

Since the show for us non traditional media is a marathon from start to finish each day, we don't eat, drink, or sleep right. The end of the show each day is spent downloading, processing, and posting information. Then you find something to eat, (finally!) but you have to walk miles to get to it. That takes time and more of your already depleted energy. It's a good thing I'm fat, or I'd be in big trouble! Ha !

Once in awhile you get offered to go out, (on your guests tab, cause I ain't got no money!) A few really cool companies and industry friends helped us out that way. (Thanks! I would've had a breath mint and a glass of water otherwise!) So, it's pretty cool to have met the folks I have and hang out with them. Even if they don't buy me dinner, cycling/industry folks are some of the kindest, coolest people I've had the pleasure of meeting. It makes me glad I'm in the industry I'm in. Well.......besides the fact that it is about bicycles!

<Mike Curiak's personal LenzSport Lunchbox bike. How many folks do you know that would drag their personal rig hundreds of miles away from home just to let you ride it for an hour?

In the end it is the people in this industry that make doing Interbike so cool. (Traditional media folks aside) People like Mike Curiak, Brent and Ryan from Twin Six, Mike and Jason from Salsa Cycles, the Jenson USA crew, and so many more. I really could go on and on. Without that it would be so draining and empty, even with all the bike stuff around you. So, thanks to you cool cycling peeps! You make going to Interbike fun!

Like any big trip, going home is always the best part, (Right Mom!) and going home from this show was no different. Las Vegas is so..........weird! I just really appreciated my wife and family even more when I got back.

That was Interbike and that was the last really big deal of the year. I had a ride planned for the end of October, Trans Iowa registration, planning, and recon to think about, and planning for next years Big Wheeled Ballyhoo was also on tap. All of that in the next and final installment of the 2007 Rearview.cccc